A Rare Opportunity to Improve Our Child Welfare System

One thing that I have learned throughout my career is that change often happens very slowly. In the case of our child welfare system, opportunities for change can often take many decades to arrive.

We currently have a precious opportunity to look beyond our current economic crisis toward fundamental change in Washington’s child welfare system. During the 2009 legislative session, Senator Jim Hargrove and Representative Ruth Kagi spearheaded legislation laying the groundwork for public and private partnerships to transform services for our children. This legislation, 2SHB 2106, called for a shift to performance-based contracting of many of the programs and services currently provided by the Department of Health and Social Services (DSHS).

This new law requires DSHS to consolidate and convert current contracts for child welfare services to performance-based contracts by 2011. It also creates the Child Welfare Transformation Design Committee (TDC) to select two demonstration sites that must implement a more comprehensive system of performance-based child welfare services in 2012. I currently serve as one of four private nonprofit service provider representatives on the TDC. Throughout many months of committee work, I remain hopeful that we can create a system that provides families with greater access to high-quality support.

Why would a shift to performance-based contracting make a difference in how well we serve children and families in Washington? Many states have already moved toward this method of contracting. The results have been mixed, but there is a growing body of evidence that carefully planned performance-based contracting in a truly collaborative environment can allow us to better serve children.

The key is that performance-based contracting entails structuring a service around key outcomes. Instead of focusing on just the actual services, performance-based contracting is driven by detailed outcomes that lead to child safety and well-being. This is a simple but effective concept that CHSW and other organizations have embraced. This makes a tremendous difference in the quality of services that we provide to children and families.

You will undoubtedly hear more about this effort in the coming months. There are certainly different opinions on whether it will eventually lead to improvement of our child welfare system. I believe that this law is not about whether the state or community-based agencies are better at providing services. It is about harnessing the power of public-private partnerships and best practice. Ultimately, its success will hinge on our willingness and ability to come together and work together to find creative solutions to meet the needs of children and families. This law allows us to take advantage of this rare collaborative opportunity.

As implementation of 2106 continues, I look forward to reporting back on what this means for children and families in Washington. In the meantime, you can find out more about this important effort by visiting www.joinhandsforchildren.org.